He’s crazy as a loon, and he travels with an all-girl bodyguard squad (one of whom you can see behind him in this photo), and on a “visit of reconciliation” to Italy, Muammar Gadafi pinned a photograph to his chest intended to twist Berlusconi’s nose.

Colonel Gaddafi has arrived in Rome at the start of an historic visit to Libya’s former colonial masters with an archive photograph provocatively pinned to his chest showing the arrest of an anti-Italy guerilla fighter dubbed “The Lion of the Desert”.

The photograph shows the arrest in 1931 by colonial Italian troops of the Libyan guerilla leader Omar al Mukhtar. Al Mukhtar’s frail elderly son, who descended the aircraft steps with difficulty just behind Gaddafi in traditional white Arab robes, is part of the 300-strong delegation accompanying the Libyan leader. A Libyan financed 1980s feature film on the anti colonial struggle, The Lion of the Desert, was recently broadcast on Italian television for the first time.

Both Libya and Italy officials insist that despite the anti-colonial gesture, the colonel’s three day trip - his first since gaining power in a coup 40 years ago - is a “visit of reconciliation”. Wearing full colonel’s uniform with gold epaulettes, numerous medals, sunglasses and straggly long black hair beneath a military cap, the Libyan leader said “a page of the past has been turned, thanks to the courage of Italy”, as he embraced Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister.